Annual Meetings week: The Bank opens its doors

Development results are hard to capture sometimes, but if you take a walk through the World Bank’s lobby this week, you’ll see a string of successes in 79 of the world’s poorest countries.

Giant colored circles pasted across our entrance detail results reported by IDA, the Bank’s Fund for the Poorest: 33 million mosquito nets purchased and distributed to prevent malaria; 11 million people benefiting from crisis response programs; 300 million textbooks distributed.

It’s a reminder that development assistance can improve lives.

Results will be a key part of the discussion this week as the Bank-IMF Annual Meetings kick off Friday, Oct. 8. Over the next few days, Ministers of Finance and Development, central bankers, private sector executives, academics, journalists and Bank-IMF staff will gather to discuss aid effectiveness, the post-financial crisis economic outlook, and ongoing reforms to make the Bank more open and accountable.

The Bank will also host several special events this week, including a panel discussion on the Adolescent Girls Initiative and a film screening and discussion on biodiversity, co-hosted with National Geographic. Our online window into the Annual Meetings, the Open Forum, runs from Oct. 7-8, and once the meetings begin, a diverse program of seminars will address everything from green growth to helping women entrepreneurs.

We’ll be covering all of this, along with the plenary session and Development Committee meeting, in this blog and on our home page. Here, a few highlights to watch for:

Open Forum: This Oct. 7-8 online event, a first for the Bank, will feature live video coverage of the meetings and expert panel discussions on Open Development Solutions, Jumpstarting Jobs, and Development Now: A Changing Landscape.

Blog Posts: Look for guest posts by Bank experts on open data tools, IDA and food security. We’ll also be posting daily wrap-up summaries, to include the program of seminars.

Webcasts and Video: We’ll be running live webcasts of Bank President Robert Zoellick’s opening press conference, the G-24 press conference, opening plenary session, and the development committee meeting press conference on Saturday. Additional video stories will capture special events, press conferences and the plenary session.